Software Learning

The Learning project aims to investigate advanced techniques for assisting users in learning complicated applications. We are interested in a range of investigations from the scientific study of the human learning process to prototyping novel interaction techniques for improving the general learning mechanisms that can be applied to all applications.

The Learning project aims to investigate advanced techniques for assisting users in learning complicated applications. We are interested in a range of investigations from the scientific study of the human learning process to prototyping novel interaction techniques for improving the general learning mechanisms that can be applied to all applications.

One of our main observations is that the fundamental application provided learning mechanism, the "help system", has not changed much in the last 10 years or so. However, our computing environment has undergone significant changes such as:

Widespread Internet usage

Google searching (and indexing of vast quantities of information)

Cheap video streaming (e.g., YouTube)

Larger and higher resolution displays

CPU/GPU speed improvements

Online communities

The Learning project will focus on a variety of research questions such as:

Can we improve the way people learn complicated applications?

Can we provide ways of capturing expert workflows and share them with colleagues by visualizing the workflows within an application?

Are there ways of intelligently recommending contextually-based learning material to users based on analyzing CIP data (time-stamped command histories) reported by thousands of users and comparing that to a user's own command history?

Can we visualize and detect patterns of command usage and command sequencing to help inform interface design?